


Goodbye

by notsoGREP



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: F/M, Zombie Apocolypse, arin/suzy isn't discussed at all but it's a thing, because reasons, he's not there, rip my heart, ross is only really mentioned, zombie grumps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 13:56:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4062517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notsoGREP/pseuds/notsoGREP
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Goodbyes were never fun, and this was certainly no exception. It’s not like saying goodbye to a coworker you’ll see the next day. Not like saying goodbye to a relative who’d flew in from another state and was leaving. No, they were saying goodbye to people who have fawned over them and adored them for years because they were probably going to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> i'm so sorry

Goodbyes were never fun, and this was certainly no exception. It’s not like saying goodbye to a coworker you’ll see the next day. Not like saying goodbye to a relative who’d flew in from another state and was leaving. No, they were saying goodbye to people who have fawned over them and adored them for years because they were probably going to die.

 

          It was eerily quiet in the cold, dark warehouse, which made perfect sense as to why they would record the video in it. It might have been hard to see and it might have made them shiver visibly, but it was the one place where they wouldn’t be plagued by the moans of the zombies that threatened to ambush them at any given moment. Giving an inward sigh, Arin and the four other remaining Grumps put on blatantly fake smiles as he clicked record on the dying laptop.

       “Hey, everybody,” he said with a halfhearted wave to the webcam. “This is, uh, five of the Game Grumps here and… we’re not doing too great.”

       It was true that they were struggling; their food supplies were running dangerously low and they had to ration practically morsels of food every day. There was game that could be killed, but a lot of it they had shot and realized that it had been bitten already and probably would have died soon enough in the first place. Water was a necessity that was quickly becoming almost a delicacy, too. A lot of the streams and rivers that they had become accustomed to passing by before this hell was unleashed on earth had been poisoned or dried up.  It was most likely a fluke if they went a week without anyone getting attacked or injured, and recently they were being swarmed by a horde of zombies and Ross never made it out alive. Dan had become sick with pneumonia as well, which left them essentially one less set of hands to help out even though he insisted on at least trying. Basically, the five remaining people were in horrible condition and they had all separately realized that they probably wouldn’t survive this outbreak. This realization brought them here to this warehouse, all of them injured, one struggling to breathe through the infection in his lungs, to record a goodbye.

       “We’ve been trying extremely hard to get by but it’s really just not cutting it. Dan’s sick, Ross… Ross is dead, and the rest of us are hurt in some way. It sucks.” Arin paused for a moment, considering his words carefully. “So… this is probably going to be our last video. We wanted to say thank you all for years of sticking by us.”

He picked the laptop up from his lap and leaned forward to set it down on the ground in front of them so that all of them were in the frame. It took a moment of adjusting, but finally all of them were encompassed into the shot. Arin glanced back at the other four who surrounded them and smiled. Before they had set up, he had assured them all that it was okay and natural to cry. He was actually seriously expecting them to pretty early on because of the circumstances. So it surprised him to see that all of them had mostly expressionless faces. Giving a small sigh, he turned back to look at the webcam again and attempted to give a sincere smile.

“It’s been a pretty wild ride since we started the channel, hasn’t it?” Arin chuckled, thinking back on some of the weird shit that had happened in the years since.  “Who would have realized that in the end we would end up in a freezing cold shack fighting for our lives… Coming up to Jon-- yes, I said his name, get over it --and asking if he wanted to start a channel was one of the greatest decisions of my life, and I haven’t regretted it for a single second.” He had the most sincere tone that any of them had heard from him since they’d met him. It wasn’t too often that Arin would actually speak from his heart, but when he did it usually ended up in someone crying, for various reasons. It did slip from everyone’s minds on occasion that underneath that ball of unbridled rage there was actually a person. With feelings. Other than rage.

“Honestly, these have been the best years of my life, and I’d assume that everyone else here feels the same to some extent?” The others behind Arin responded yes in varying ways, like nodding their heads or just flat-out saying ‘hell fucking yeah’. He snorted when he heard Dan say that; honestly, the mood was a little heavy and it was nice to have it lightened even a little bit. “Thank you for your excellent addition to the conversation, Daniel.”

“No problem!” replied Dan, his voice congested from his illness, laughing a little bit.

Arin rolled his eyes. “Anyways…” His tone turned more serious again as he continued. “Pretty much the point I’m trying to get at here is… Thank you all so fucking much for being here with us for so long. We love every single person that’s watched us, whether currently alive or dead after a week watching, so much. You’re all amazing people for supporting us in any way, even if you just watch our content. We’re not entirely sure if we’re, uh, going to survive this…” He faltered; the words hurt just to say. “But if we don’t-- if this really is our last video --just know that we’re so incredibly thankful to have you all watching our content, and we’re glad we managed to bring ten minutes of laughter to you every day.”

Arin was silent for a moment. He wasn’t quite sure what to say next, and he was putting all his effort in trying to hold back tears that he could feel beginning to well up in his eyes. He looked back at the four others behind him again, and saw them in states much different than the ones they were in when he first glanced back at them. Kevin and Barry were locked in a bit of a comforting embrace, with Barry’s face clearly flushed. He was pretty sure Barry was trying not to cry as well, although he wasn’t holding up quite as well as Arin. Suzy had her face buried in her hands, and she gave a visible sigh as Arin’s eyes passed over her. And Dan… oh, poor Dan.

Each of the Grumps’ levels of emotional stability had declined, to put it lightly, with panic attacks and breakdowns unfortunately frequent, but none more so than Dan. He had to watch one of his closest friends die without being able to do anything to help, and that had left him especially prone to these things. The pained shrieks of that damn Australian and the terrified look in his eyes as he faded away haunted the older man’s nightmares and hardly a day would go by where he wouldn’t wake up with tears in his eyes. He was constantly blaming himself for the death of Ross, one time lashing out at Barry who was trying to console him, shouting that “I could have saved him, if it weren’t for my fucking stupidity he’d still be alive, it’s all my fault”. So to see him once again sitting there with tears running down his cheeks broke Arin’s heart. Somehow, though, he was silent. His face was still completely emotionless.

Arin scooted back a little bit so that he was sitting next to the older man, gently rubbing his back, silent still.There was still a good ten seconds or so before he spoke again, murmuring to the camera, “I think we’re gonna stop here. Remember, everybody, you all mean so much to us. Maybe see you again. But for now… Grumps, out.” He leaned forward to shut off the recording, which which listed to be only five minutes; somehow, it felt so much longer.

Pulling the laptop back in front of him so that he didn’t have to stay leaning like that for an eternity, he went to YouTube and for once the video didn’t take an eternity to upload, probably because it was 100% raw footage and not edited to hell and back. Arin pulled everyone close to him so they could watch the video together. As he heard his own voice end the video, he clicked out of the browser, shutting the laptop closed. He let out a long, shuddering sigh. And he finally cracked, stuffing his face in his hands and letting out a choked sob. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading, i am not held accountable for any hearts that have been shattered during the reading of this work. <3  
> 


End file.
